Mistletoe Run
by Wolf Rocket
Summary: The Dragonborn and his companions go for a run to find the elusive 'mistletoe', a magical plant that will hopefully win Vilkas a date to the upcoming festival.


**Mistletoe Run**

"This isn't going to work, my Thane, such a thing simply does not exist" Lydia grumbled as she trotted after the Khajiit with her eyes on the rocky ground along White River. Aela was slightly more agile with her lighter armor and had skipped ahead while the wolf twins were left a ways behind, the Dragonborn and his housecarl stuck tripping in the middle.

"But Farengar said he read about it in a book and books don't lie" the cat replied, upbeat as usual.

"Who do you think writes those books? Saints?" the housecarl countered. As if in karmic retribution, she stubbed her toe in the next second on a large stone protruding from the edge of the water.

The Khajiit chuckled.

* * *

"We're losing daylight people, let's get a move on" hissed the Huntress as the brothers and the two non-Companions finally caught up to her not long after they passed Riverwood. "Cat, I hope you know what you're doing, I've never even heard of this 'mistletoe'. What exactly is it?" she added out of curiosity.

It was amazing how little imagination the Nords seemed to have, "Don't you guys ever read?" growled the cat but he didn't push the issue when he saw the looks of annoyance on his friends' faces. Sighing, he explained, for the second or third time that day, "Mistletoe is an enchanted plant. You put it in food or a drink and then when you share that meal with your special someone, you both get that 'ping' of attraction and voila! Instant love" He spread his arms wide to show how all-encompassing the passion would be but it just made the Huntress scoff and the younger sibling laugh.

"And you think Vilkas should give it to Saadia?" Lydia asked. She was obviously skeptical but she decided to humor her Thane, also her toe was still hurting and she didn't feel like being punished again for her lack of faith. The Khajiit nodded in reply, shooting Vilkas a cheeky grin.

"My friends, this really isn't necessary. If Saadia is taken with Mikael, so be it" the elder twin grunted in embarrassment, "Besides, I don't much like the idea of tricking her to gain her affections" That was Vilkas, always the considerate one, it was a wonder why he was still single.

"I agree with the Harbinger" Aela announced, to everyone's surprise. She'd seemed completely indifferent to the plot until now and it was even odder to think she would go for Vilkas' sensitive routine. But of course, she wasn't finished, "The only proper way to win a woman's heart is to defeat the opposition in one-on-one combat, with fists or weapons if need be" she said and everyone sighed.

"I think you might be spending too much time as a werewolf" the Khajiit grimaced though the Huntress' theory did explain why Vilkas couldn't manage to rally Saadia's affections. The Nord could easily be seen as more of a lover than a fighter but, then again, so could Mikael, the competition was a bard after all. "Look let's find the mistletoe and if you really don't want to use it, no harm done. I for one think it's a great idea. You just need to consider the magic as more of a … nudge in the right direction"

The Harbinger still wasn't convinced however so they dropped the conversation for a bit to focus on walking and to allow the Nord time to decide.

* * *

Lake Ilinalta was a gorgeous stretch of sparkling water as the adventurers arrived on its slanted shoreline. It was afternoon and the sun was beginning to cast an orange glow on the hilly landscape, the accompanying calm winds making it the perfect setting for the task at hand.

"What in Oblivion is the mistletoe doing inside of a fish?" Aela barked when the Khajiit explained the job to his friends. First the soggy march to the lake and now a swim to catch some fish which may or may not have the plant inside of them, the day was turning out to be quite the headache.

"Do we at least know what it looks like?" Farkas asked, speaking up after not having said a word all day. He had been worried that Vilkas was cross with him for asking Aela to the festival before the elder sibling had a chance to find someone. Usually, the brothers went stag to events so it was understandable.

In answer to their questions, the cat told them what Farengar had told him, "The mistletoe was thrown into this very lake by a witch because it was so powerful and its been here ever since. Some say they saw a fish swallow it though that could be speculation. He didn't tell me much else except that it's quite pointy so be careful while you're looking"

There was a collective groan from everyone but the Dragonborn at the sparse explanation and yet they went to work anyway, the cat more eagerly than the rest. He couldn't understand why his companions weren't more excited, they were searching for a rare, magical plant with the ability to manipulate the most complex of human emotions, how could that not entice them?

However, after catching two fish in thirty minutes and burrowing his arm elbow deep into their slimy, gaping mouths to come up empty handed, the Khajiit understood what his friends had been thinking. "Lydiaaaa! Help!" he cried when a particularly stubborn salmon refused to let go of his arm. His housecarl came splashing over in seconds and pulled the fish off of him with a single, mighty tug only to fall backwards into the water, drenching herself as well as most of the cat's fur and armor.

"My Thane, you do realize this lake leads into the longest river in Skyrim. What makes you so certain the mistletoe is still here?" Lydia asked as she begrudgingly lifted herself from the water.

The Khajiit's eyes widened despite the water that was dripping from his eyelids, "You know... I didn't think of..."

"SON OF A BITCH!" howled Vilkas from afar, cutting the cat off as well as alerting every living thing within a mile radius of the Harbinger's position.

Farkas was the closest to his brother so he swam over easily with Aela following and the Khajiit and the housecarl joining the group last, all of them close to laughing when they saw the elder sibling was rubbing his buttocks in pain and regret for not wearing his armor that day. "What happened?" the Huntress snickered, hardly keeping her usual composure.

"A damned Slaughterfish bit me. I couldn't smell it coming with all this water" snarled the Harbinger with a glare at the amber-haired Nord. The Khajiit offered to heal the wound but Vilkas refused, "No, I will feel better once I've killed the damned thing but I would appreciate some help catching it. It's quite a fast one" he admitted.

He wasn't kidding, not only was the Slaughterfish large, nearly twice the length of the Harbinger's arm, but it was incredibly fast, its sleek body snaking around the adventurers like wind through the wisps of a willow. The good thing was the Slaughterfish never left the lake, the Khajiit assumed because it had eggs to look after. The bad thing was the fish had eggs to protect so it was more aggressive than normal and the companions sustained many an injury simply trying to herd it around the lake.

"Farkas we are trying to get it closer to shore, you're supposed to lead it to Vilkas and he will get it to the Khajiit who will bat it onto land. Do you understand, ice-brain?" Aela hissed as the younger sibling faltered at the scolding. It was their third attempt at trapping the fish and it wasn't going well, especially not when Farkas couldn't focus on herding the Slaughterfish and pay attention to where he was going at the same time.

"Follow the sound of my voice!" Vilkas called to his brother as the fish was once again sent hurtling towards the young twin. They all watched with bated breath as Farkas crashed through the waves after the fleeing creature and, using his wolf hearing to catch the sound of his elder brother's whistle, managed to lead the fish right to the Harbinger.

From there, it was easy enough to keep the fish on course to the Khajiit who was waiting in the shallows. As soon as the Slaughterfish had crossed into the vicinity of the Dragonborn, the cat went for broke and shouted, "Fus, Ro, Dah!" directly at the poor animal. The fish, as well as a sizable column of water, was sent careening into the air with the force, before hovering for half a second, then cascading back down into the lake with a smacking sound similar to a fat-man landing a belly-flop. The fish was dead on impact with the shore.

"That might have been overkill" Lydia commented as the companions regrouped on the grass around the body of the Slaughterfish.

If the Khajiit hadn't been so thrilled with the immensity of his shout, he would have agreed with her. "Vilkas, you can do the honors" the cat said, spinning the fish with his foot so that its cavernous mouth was facing towards the Harbinger, rows of sharp teeth serving to remind the Nord of the mark on his left cheek.

Grumbling, Vilkas reached into the mouth of the beast to do a final check for the mistletoe before they seared the fish for dinner. He had his whole arm rummaging inside the fish when all of a sudden he screamed, "Bloody Oblivion!" and retracted his limb with a speed rivaling that of the Slaughterfish. His index finger and palm were bleeding profusely from a diagonal gash, one that was normally left by a straight blade but had somehow come from the guts of a fish. Which could only mean one thing.

"You think the fish might have swallowed something?" Aela asked. She examined the Harbinger's wound while the Khajiit and the younger twin flipped the fish over so they could shake whatever the sharp thing was loose. It took a lot of heaving and flinging but the friends managed it and by the time the Huntress had bandaged Vilkas' hand with some gauze from the housecarl's pack, the object slid out.

It was a sword, steel and with a hilt studded in rubies that glimmered in the light of the setting sun. "Woah, it's amazing. I can't believe that fish had this thing in its stomach, can you imagine how much that must've hurt?" the Khajiit wondered in awe. He picked up the sword and turned it over in his paw, holding it so everyone could see.

The blade was slender for a Nord weapon and long, making it difficult to wield but deadly in the hands of someone skilled or patient enough to use it. On one side there was a pattern carved into the steel resembling the swirls found in most other Nord swords. But the other side was where the Dragonborn's gaze lingered for there weren't merely markings but words etched onto that part of the blade and it was legible too, despite the evident age of the weapon.

"Mistiltein? Is that a name?" the cat asked, unfamiliar with the old language. He was surprised when Lydia literally smacked herself on the forehead at the question. "What? Is it that obvious?"

His housecarl huffed and the Khajiit saw that the other Nords were also looking at each other in either annoyance or amusement. He was the only one out of the loop, nothing new there.

"Well? What is it?" pleaded the Dragonborn, sick of the secrecy.

"It's Mistletoe" Vilkas replied with a huff of his own.

The Khajiit was so shocked he couldn't respond properly, "What? But Farengar... and the books... plant!"

Aela smirked at the Dragonborn's spluttering, her stoic wall crumbling to allow her smugness to show through, briefly. "I did tell you, the best way to a woman's heart is a sword through another man's stomach. I'd say the books were spot on, Vilkas will have no trouble swaying Saadia to his whims with Mistletoe by his side"

"Yeah... remind me never to try to woo you" the Dragonborn muttered to his housecarl and she smiled back.

* * *

The only ones to kiss underneath Mistletoe the night of the festival was Mikael and the hard, cold floor of the Bannered Mare. Vilkas and Saadia did their 'kissing' in the bedroom.

The End.

**AN: Happy holidays everyone! I hope everything is well with you lot and that you're enjoying the season whether you celebrate or not. I wrote this short just for the occasion and I hope it was as fun to read as it was to write. **

**The sword and bits of the story are references to "****Hrómund Gripsson's Saga"**


End file.
